Fixing and Blending Awlgrip Paint

[Seevee]

Saw a neighbors boat the other day, which was painted with Awlgrip about 8 years ago. There were several spots where the paint was stripping off and needed to be touched up.


How hard is it to touch up and blend in Awlgrip? Being a poly urethane paint, typically, touch up is very difficult.


I was thinking of using Awlgrip or similar for future use to eliminate the hassle of gel coat, which requires constant maintenance. But don't want to end up with a paint that's horribly hard to fix.



Thoughts?

 

[Bacchus]

Larry
Never worked with Awlgrip but have with Awlcraft and that is fairly easy to sort repair by someone with a little spray gun experience. Small spots can eveb be done with the small aerosol Preval sprayers.

 

[Newtrawlerowner]

Saw a neighbors boat the other day, which was painted with Awlgrip about 8 years ago. There were several spots where the paint was stripping off and needed to be touched up.


How hard is it to touch up and blend in Awlgrip? Being a poly urethane paint, typically, touch up is very difficult.


I was thinking of using Awlgrip or similar for future use to eliminate the hassle of gel coat, which requires constant maintenance. But don't want to end up with a paint that's horribly hard to fix.



Thoughts?

As a former auto body and paint person, the ease of blending is pretty straightforward. Repair the area, sand back, buff the entire panel, clean and spray. As soon as the touched up area flashes off, reduce and blend the area painted and move out 6-12 inches. If the panel is a dark color, you may have to go back and buff after several days of dry. If you are a novice, go buy an old car hood or door and practice. Use the same paint to keep costs down. I've touched up cars, airplanes and boats using this process.

The biggest problem painting a boat is doing it outdoors. I had my hull repainted due to time, cost and location. The painter created a "Paint shed" by draping plastic down from the deck to the ground. No dirt and a pretty nice job overall.
I had my boat painted with Alcraft, made by Awlgrip.

 

[Seevee]

As a former auto body and paint person, the ease of blending is pretty straightforward. Repair the area, sand back, buff the entire panel, clean and spray. As soon as the touched up area flashes off, reduce and blend the area painted and move out 6-12 inches. If the panel is a dark color, you may have to go back and buff after several days of dry. If you are a novice, go buy an old car hood or door and practice. Use the same paint to keep costs down. I've touched up cars, airplanes and boats using this process.

The biggest problem painting a boat is doing it outdoors. I had my hull repainted due to time, cost and location. The painter created a "Paint shed" by draping plastic down from the deck to the ground. No dirt and a pretty nice job overall.
I had my boat painted with Alcraft, made by Awlgrip.

Newtrawlerowner,


Good points. What I have trouble with is when one uses a poly urethane paint. They are so hard, it not easy to even get a good feather edge from the old paint. And when you add the new paint, it takes at least three coats to cover as it's very thin. And even stepping back to make an "overlay" pattern, it dries hard as rock and very difficult to very light sand and blend.


The acrylic stuff is dirt simple for the most part. Just not a durable and has more of a tendancy to fade.


Not a pro painter, but did a number of planes, cars and houses (houses a different animal). Easy to touch up if one paints a whole "panel" where it can be taped off and no blending, but we don't have that on boats.



Curious about the blending qualities of the AwlGrip product, would relay that to my neighbor. Not sure if I'd use AwlGrip or something else, but certainly wont be acrylic.

 

[Lou_tribal]

My boat is painted with awlgrip. The paint itself is very solid and durable.
I did some paint repair and eathering it is not so difficult. The most difficult is to get an exact colour match as with time the paint is changing a bit with fading and dirt.

L

 

[caltexflanc]

My boat is painted with awlgrip. The paint itself is very solid and durable.
I did some paint repair and eathering it is not so difficult. The most difficult is to get an exact colour match as with time the paint is changing a bit with fading and dirt.

L

Right on Lou and good point on the aging. Paint is not my thing, however professionals that I used to touch up or repair Alwgrip-ped surfaces were able to do a superb job of it. One thing that you can do to address the old paint issue is have someone like FinishMasters come and take a "photograph" of the existing paint and then they will blend a pigment that matches it perfectly.

 

[STB]

Awl grip won't blend into itself (.) It is not like automotive paint in this respect. It can't be sanded and then polished to the same shine because of the structure of the LP and the way that shine originally comes to be. You can sand it, polish it, and wax it, but then the wax will provide the highest level of shine, not the paint.

Obviously those with more skill can make them less obvious. But, one shouldn't expect the blend to be both invisible and maintenance free.

Other paints are better about this....but also, in my experience and observation, softer and more likely to need repair.

 

[HenryD]

As with most things - experience matters. Our boat was painted with Awlgrip and I repainted the transom when the name was changed. I used a Preval sprayer and practiced on the side of a trash dumpster. When I did the boat, it took four tries until I got a finish that was to my wife's approval.

When doing smaller repairs, it becomes a chemistry experiment with reducers, accelerants and and drying agents.

We paid to have the hull painted in 2018 and the painters opted to tip/roll the boat. The head painter was very good at "a few drops of this, and a capful of that"...and then rolling very quickly, maintaining a wet edge.

The Awlgrip finish is very hard and very easy to clean.

 

[caltexflanc]

You can sand it, polish it, and wax it, but then the wax will provide the highest level of shine, not the paint.

That is really not the case with Awlgrip at all; you must be confusing it with another paint by chance? Waxing does not come into the picture whatsoever. You can eventually use a sealant like Awl Care or Rejex to protect the shine that is inherent to Awl Grip.

 

[DDW]

Even Awlgrip says that Awlgrip cannot be successfully repaired. People do it, but you can always see the repair, if not immediately then within a year. It behaves like a two layer finish, color and then clear coat. There is no way to blend it. Awlgrip makes a new version that is supposed to be repairable, but read the procedure before assuming is can be done - very involved. Awlcraft is a whole different system. Many other two part PU paints can be successfully repaired, as they can be color sanded and polished.

 

[STB]

That is really not the case with Awlgrip at all; you must be confusing it with another paint by chance? Waxing does not come into the picture whatsoever. You can eventually use a sealant like Awl Care or Rejex to protect the shine that is inherent to Awl Grip.

Awlgrip, when applied by normal means, has no pores for wax to fill or adhere into. The paint shines by itself. Waxing isn't helpful. And, if one waxes it, the wax will eventually yellow r dull, require stripping or more wax. So, folks who really just needed a good cleaning end up in a waxing cycle. It is also the case that as Awlgrio gets to EOL and is breaking down,, some people can squeeze a but more by waxing it.

But, when folks go to repair Awlgrip, they have to sand to get adhesion. If they paint past the sanded area, it can eventually peel. If they don't, there is either a hard edge, which is ugly, or a ring or transition or blend area where the shine has been removed.

To deal with this transition situation, they then polish the awlgrip at and around the transition as one would any other paint. It is now better,, but still not shiny. So, they usually wax it. The wax fills thebpor3s in the polished (nit natural) awlgrio surface. Now it looks great and money changes hands.

A year or so later, it looks dull at the blend, the owner or detailer waxes it....timer reset.

Awlgrip just doesn't leave any perfect options for repairs where a whole section can't be done.

 

[Arc]

Not easy to repair at all. Some colors might be more successful then others just because of light reflection. You can really blend do to the way it set up. I did a door . It blended perfect . Next day you could see the blend. I 1600 and polished a few weeks later . It got better but not perfect. I really think you would wait till you can’t live with it then paint the complete side. It’s the good and bad of the product.

 

[rgano]

I used Alwgrip Snow White right out of the can on my trawler for years - roll and tip as I have no experience with spraying nor the desire to prep for the inevitable overspray in the exterior environment I worked. It pretty much always stuck but inevitable wear and tear would see me wanting to recoat after some years. Except the hull side, I would usually prep and paint unitary areas like the cabin side below the waist-high trim and grab rail where there was a clear boundary line because I could not blend the edges. Nobdy, including me, could tell good looking older surfaces from new with this method. For the hull sides repairs, I would stick to one or two strakes (wood hull with bevel joints) at a time, and over time everything blended.

Current boat is slad-sided fiberglass with red (Claret) awlcraft. I will not touch it, but when it needed repair of a largish section, a professional PERFECTLY matched the 2005 paint in 2018 right out of the can with no discernible demarkation even when looking along the hull into the light, and he buffed out myriad scratches to perfection. All hail Awlcraft and pros who have the skills!!!

 

[STB]

Hi Rich,

You said this, but just so others who might not be familiar and miss the nuance don't miss it....Awlgrip and Awlcraft are two different paints with different strengths strengths weaknesses. Reoairabikity does indeed go to Awlcraft.

 

[Comodave]

If you are going to DIY the paint job, take a look at Alexseal. They have an additive that allows rolling without tipping and you get a good to excellent paint job. And it is repairable. Check out Boat Works Today for some videos.

 

[Simi 60]

Awl grip won't blend into itself (.) It is not like automotive paint in this respect. It can't be sanded and then polished to the same shine because of the structure of the LP and the way that shine originally comes to be. You can sand it, polish it, and wax it, but then the wax will provide the highest level of shine, not the paint.
.

Have never seen a 100% successful blend, even when I worked on superyachts so they could certainly afford the best painters.
Sterling was another brand used, same results or lack of.

When building larger multihulls saw better results with poly u400 (Wattyl) being an industrial paint with pictures of mining gear and oil rigs vs superyachts, it was considerably more affordable

POLY U™400. P50.01. Version 5, February 2017. 1 of 3. DESCRIPTION. • a two pack recoatable isocyanate cured, acrylic polyurethane finish

But some of the better long term results came from non poly industrial urethane paints
Due to boats being punished hard and constantly modified, repairs were inevitable

Never witnessed an issue blending them in and saw chalky 15 year old paint jobs come back surprisingly good after a cut and polish

 

[Choices]

Awlgrip can be blended, but paint color and mixing is the key.

You have to wet sand the panel spray the repair then wet sand the area again and buff out.

It is very hard, similar to Imron, and takes a long time to buff out. Most people don't have the patience to do it.l, including myself.

Is there a reason not to just reshoot the entire panel?

 

[caltexflanc]

I guess the various yards (Anchor Bay East in Baltimore, Thunderbolt Marine in Savannah, Jarrett Bay in Beaufort NC) and painters who worked on our boat never got the memo, because I had touch ups /repairs using Awlgrip that were still seamless 4-6 years later of heavy use in salt water.

By the way, for aging Awlgrip or Imron, a glaze like Finesse-It II followed by an application of Rejex or similar works wonders and extends the useful life many years.

 

[DDW]

Awlgrip can be blended, but paint color and mixing is the key.

You have to wet sand the panel spray the repair then wet sand the area again and buff out.

It is very hard, similar to Imron, and takes a long time to buff out. Most people don't have the patience to do it.l, including myself.

Is there a reason not to just reshoot the entire panel?

If you wet sand Awlgrip and buff it out, you can make it look good enough to get paid. It will not look great after a few months or a year. Once you buff Awlgrip, it will NEVER look the same as the untouched surface. Awlgrip themselves say that in their literature. I had a repair done to my bootstripe, by the person from Awlgrip that trains painters. She said I would be able to see it after awhile, and sure enough I can.